09 October 2025

RCW authors Julia Donaldson, Anna James, Katherine Rundell and Emma Swan have all been shortlisted for the Books Are My Bag Readers Awards 2025. The Books Are My Bag Readers Awards are the only book awards with shortlists chosen by bookshops and winners, then voted for by the public. Gozzle written by Julia Donaldson and illustrated by Sara Ogilvie was shortlisted in the Picture Book category. Alice With a Why written by Anna James and illustrated by Matthew Land and Impossible Creatures: The Poisoned King by Katherine Rundell were both shortlisted in the Children's Fiction category. Emma Swan (Cruise Ship Kid: Thief At Sea!) was shortlisted in the Newcomer of the Year category. 

06 October 2025

We are sad to announce the death of beloved RCW client Brian Patten, who passed away peacefully in hospital on 29th September 2025, aged 79, with his wife Linda by his side.

Born in Liverpool in 1946, Patten came to prominence as one of the Liverpool poets who published The Mersey Sound poetry anthology in 1967, alongside Adrian Henri and Roger McGough. From his early days editing and publishing the magazine underdog, which gave a platform to Liverpool’s underground poets, to living rough in Paris (paying his way by writing poems in coloured chalk on the pavements beside the city’s pavement artists), Brian became a titan of twentieth century poetry. 

Amongst his many collections were Vanishing Trick and Armada, which included some of his most striking poems, focusing on the death of his mother and his memories of childhood. Penguin published his Selected Poems and Harper Perennial one of his most important books, The Collected Love Poems.

Brian was honoured with the Freedom of the City of Liverpool and was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, as well as Liverpool University, John Moores University and T...

02 October 2025

Following what was called “an incredibly competitive international process,” Kim Varvell and Tommy Bulfin’s production house will adapt the Eloise Rodger's debut novel Death's A Bitch into a TV series. The plan is to take the show to both the UK and international markets.

Eloise Rodger’s upcoming debut novel, which is due to publish in 2027, has been directing chatter in worldwide circles, leading to the auction.

Billed as a “coming-of-age novel with a high concept twist,” Death’s a Bitch comes from 22-year-old London-based writer Rodger, who wrote the book in her final year at Trinity College Dublin, where she was a scholar of English literature – a post that has previously been held by the likes of Samuel Beckett. She was co editor-in-chief of Icarus, the oldest arts journal in Ireland, where she published new work from Simon Armitage and Lucy Caldwell. The book follows Aggie, whose younger sister, Marcie, has been unwell for over a year and on a never-ending waitlist. When Death offers Aggie a job that will allow Marcie to live, she readily accepts.

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09 September 2025

Lawrence Osborne's 2014 novel, The Ballad of a Small Player has been adapted into a film, Ballad of a Small Player, directed by Edward Berger, starring Colin Farrell. The film premiered at the 52nd Telluride Film Festival in August 2025, and will be released in cinemas in mid-October before streaming on Netflix at the end of October. 

27 August 2025

Julia Donaldson has become the first writer to sell more than 50 million units through British bookshops since accurate records began!

Donaldson and her illustrators have now shifted 50.3 million copies via NielsenIQ BookScan’s Total Consumer Market.

Donaldson’s bestseller is her and illustrator Axel Scheffler’s 1999 paperback edition of The Gruffalo (Macmillan Children’s), which has sold just under 1.5 million copies. She has two other editions that have exceeded one million units (both illustrated by Scheffler and published by Macmillan Children’s): The Gruffalo’s Child and Room on the Broom. All of Donaldson’s top 10 bestsellers have been collaborations with Axel Scheffler. Various versions of the two Gruffalo titles account for nearly 20% of Donaldson’s total, a percentage that may increase in Autumn 2026 when the third title in the series is set to be launched.

25 July 2025

The Artist by Lucy Steeds has won the 2025 Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize. 

The book is set over one sweltering summer during the 1920s, and focuses on an enigmatic painter, the young British journalist set on penning a piece on him, and the artist’s seemingly unworldly niece. As the young man sets out to write his piece on the great and terrifying painter, tensions between the three come to a dramatic conclusion.

Bea Carvalho, Waterstones head of books, said: “It is a great pleasure to announce that Waterstones booksellers have chosen Lucy Steeds as the winner of the 2025 Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize for her novel The Artist. From a shortlist of six stunning books, The Artist stood out for its atmospheric, sensory prose, and its headily evocative sense of time and place. It is a stylish, elegant treat of a novel which seamlessly transports the reader to sun-soaked southern France, weaving mystery with romance, while delving into the complex nature of artistry. Lucy Steeds is a writer of rare talent: she is able to conjure vivid brushstrokes, sticky heat, and the smells and tastes of Provence, through words on the page. This is a gorgeously claus...